In her 30 years with Estee Lauder since 1977, Thia Breen has not met anyone who has not heard of the brand.

'It's unbelievable,' says the president of Estee Lauder Worldwide who is based at the company's headquarters in New York City.

That is not for want of meeting people: Just last week, the globetrotter set foot on a string of cities including Singapore, Shanghai and Seoul to meet key Estee Lauder executives from the Asia Pacific region.

Breen, 58, who is single, looks every bit the well-groomed executive going full throttle. Dressed in a grey coat dress and sporting a stylish blonde crop and immaculate make-up, she has been in the beauty business for 32 years, with 29 years spent with the Estee Lauder Companies (ELC).

In 2002, she quit to join the Federated Merchandising Group, which owns the Macy's chain of department stores, overseeing its cosmetics and fragrances business. She returned to Estee Lauder in 2005.

Working in a department store has given her 'great depth of opinion', says the woman who has successfully launched brands such as Aramis, Clinique and Origins.

In her current role as president of Estee Lauder Worldwide, she oversees its global growth in over 130 countries, as well as supervises day-to-day operations in the United States.

Though she surrounds herself with 'great people', Breen has a pulse on key changes.

On the global credit crunch, she says Estee Lauder will continue to win and keep customers with in-depth, over-the-counter consultations.

She sees multi-label brands such as Sephora as alternatives for customers who would not otherwise visit department stores where Estee Lauder does better in.

'Sephora's customers are younger. They will find it a great place to browse as they are not used to the amount of service that women of my generation are used to at a beauty counter.'

A marketing graduate of the University of Minnesota, she began her career in the beauty industry early.

Her parents owned a drugstore and put her in charge of stocking it with Bonne Belle cosmetics, an American line targeted at young girls.

She handled her first customer complaint - that the 'product didn't work' - when she was 13.

'What I realised was that she didn't know how to use the product. This incident taught me to give a customer as much information as possible,' she said.

It is a lesson well applied especially at Estee Lauder, a company that prides itself on technologically advanced products. The latest innovations include TurboLash ($50), a battery-operated vibrating mascara, and Time Zone ($120), a line and wrinkle reducing cream.

Estee Lauder Companies owns 29 brands, 12 of which are available in Singapore. The stable's top three brands here are Estee Lauder, Clinique and M.A.C.

Her favourites: Re-Nutriv Ultimate Lifting Cream, $372, and Ultimate Lifting Eye Cream, $163, Doublewear Stay-In-Place foundation, $53, for Asia's humid climate, Advanced Night Repair Protective Recovery Complex, $127, TurboLash and the fragrance Sensuous, which is not launched in Asia yet.

What is it like working for a family-run business?

Being surrounded by the Lauders - from ELC chairman Leonard Lauder to Aerin Lauder, creative director of Estee Lauder - 'is the best of all the worlds', she says.

'At the end of the day, it's their name on the package and that matters. They are going to do their best to ensure what they put out is the best and that it would (not) tarnish their reputation.'

ESTEE MOMENTS

Even though she died at 97 in 2004, Estee Lauder (below, left), founder of Estee Lauder Companies, is still fondly remembered by all who have met her.

Thia Breen shares her favourite memories of the founder:

'She was the greatest comedienne and would always poke fun at herself. Once, while she was trying out a new fragrance she had developed, she hopped into a cab on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

'Just before reaching her destination, the cab driver told her he liked her perfume and asked her what it was.

'She replied: 'I'm developing a new fragrance and I'm Estee Lauder'. 'The cab driver laughed and retorted: 'Right. And I'm Cary Grant'.'

- 'I was with Origins when it launched a store in New York City in Spring Street, SoHo in 1992.

'She wanted to see the store and so she came down to SoHo. Let me tell you, Mrs Estee Lauder had never hung out in SoHo as it was a pretty avant garde part of New York City then.

'But she came anyway and plopped herself onto a make-up chair. Then she called me over and said: 'I'm going to lunch'.

'We anticipated she would want to eat at one of the fancy restaurants in the area, so we had a number of reservations in different places, not knowing what she wanted.

'She said: 'I want a hotdog for lunch. That's my favourite lunch'.

'I don't think many people knew that.'

- 'Many years ago, we launched a fragrance called JHL - the initials of her husband Joseph H. Lauder - for the brand Aramis.

'Being that it was named after her husband, she went to the Saks Fifth Avenue counter for the launch.

'She started selling products behind the counter and that was all she did.

'The Saks executives were waiting for her for lunch, so I went to give her a gentle reminder. She said: 'Oh, I can see them any time, but I can't see my customers every day'. '

This article was first published in Urban, The Straits Times on Jan 23, 2009.